ernie Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 Hi Pickles, Not aimed exactly, directed, let’s say. Your info is very interesting and helpful, at the moment I am examining ways of lowering bank charges (we all know about income diminishing and expenses rising). You have give me some good ideas. May I ask the name of the French bank perhaps ? I am with the biggest. I also use accounts in other countries to avoid transfer charges, but here they like to charge a “reception fee”. This might well be illegal under the new EU/EC arules, just lately in. Thank you for your response. Cheers from Ernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I would also be interested in knowing the name of your bank. We pay 6 euros each month at the moment, which is lower than it was. We have no cards at all with them, have a cheque book which isn't used a lot, pay bills by DD or online. We pay euros in when we are there, from an ATM; I'm thinking of having a UK pension paid in France to avoid that. 12 euros sounds like an amount to aim for! I'm thinking of investigating the Post Ofice and Caisse D'Epargne next month.GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 Ernie/GGWe are with SocGen. We have a cheque book, no cards; transfers into the account from within the Single European Payments Area in Euros are free (transfers out are free - up to 50K (!) - if initiated over the Internet), most importantly we have not subscribed to any of the "packs" of services. We get monthly statements. We pay bills by direct debit. The charges are detailed in the document available via the link below.https://particuliers.societegenerale.fr/tous_les_tarifs.htmlI suspect that we could probably get rid of the last remaining charge because ostensibly it is for having our statements arranged in the form all credits then all debits (a format I hate) and the ONLY reason why we haven't done this is that we are afraid that they would notice how much it costs them to send the statements to the UK ...RegardsPickles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernie Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Pickles,Many thanks indeed for the info. Very interesting and useful.ernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigears Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 hijust caught this thread. I try only to use my nationwide card to withdraw cash, normally 300 euros at a time. At the supermarket I always use cash. Very ocassionally when I have to pay a larger bill that I don't have the cash for, I have used my nationwide card and it hasn't failed to succeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Thanks for that, Pickles. You obviously have internet access to your account too; it sounds very similar to what we have, just better value. I'll look into that.GGEdit Just thought, maybe you have money paid in monthly; I'm just about to have my pension paid in to the French account monthly, save me transferring from Nationwide via ATMs all the time. We get a better rate in UK for having regular payments into our acount. At least we did; recently had a letter saying the 'high interest account' is now to be called 'current account'; guess why! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 [quote user="gardengirl "]You obviously have internet access to your account too[/quote]Sorry, I forgot to mention that. Yes, indeed, SocGen is very proud to tell me that my access to Internet Banking (and transactions carried out via it) is absolutely free, and I should be eternally grateful that I don't have to pay to do their work for them ....Also, we collect new cheque books (when needed) from our branch rather than have them posted to us.RegardsPickles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgina Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 Well just an update, I used the card successfully at the Intermarche today, so maybe it was just the manager of the other store who is not clued up and got a foreign card shutdown like they do. It could be because he saw that I had a french one too and wanted me to use it. When I first came to France, I once used a Credit Agricole cheque book and after the assistant was looking at the cheque, I was told I could not write an English cheque!!! LOL. At least it gave all the people in the queue behind me a laugh. I would still be interested to hear it anyone else has had a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroStar Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Are Visa Debit cards issued by Alliance & Leicester accepted by hotels in France? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 [quote user="EuroStar"]Are Visa Debit cards issued by Alliance & Leicester accepted by hotels in France?[/quote]There is absolutely no reason why they wouldn't be accepted.RegardsPickles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 [quote user="Pickles"][quote user="EuroStar"]Are Visa Debit cards issued by Alliance & Leicester accepted by hotels in France?[/quote]There is absolutely no reason why they wouldn't be accepted.[/quote]In order to avoid any unneccessary problems it is a good idea to tell A&L that you are planning a stay in a foreign country just before you go. An email/secure message usually suffices in such circumstancesSue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernie Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Spot on advice Sue.Ernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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